Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies Recipe for Decadent Treats

These dark chocolate peanut butter chip cookies are thick and fudgy, with an extra-rich chocolate flavor and loads of peanut butter chips. If you’ve been swooning over New York–style bakery cookies on social media, you need to try these gooey cookies.

This recipe was originally posted January 10, 2017 and updated August 1, 2024

I love the combination of peanut butter and chocolate. I’ve made giant peanut butter cookies and my double chocolate cookies are a longtime favorite, so these dark chocolate peanut butter chip cookies are the best of both worlds. They’re extremely thick with a deep chocolate flavor and centers that are nearly gooey.

The idea came from photos of Levain Bakery’s chocolate peanut butter chip cookies I saw on Instagram and Pinterest. I won’t call this a direct copycat since I haven’t tasted them side-by-side, but I aimed to recreate that oversized, bakery-style look: gigantic, super thick, slightly gooey in the middle with crisp edges.

Because these cookies are extra tall, you can pack them with even more peanut butter chips for spectacular pockets of flavor.

How to Make Extra Thick, Gooey Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

What makes these cookies so irresistible:

• Brown sugar adds chewiness and depth.
• Cake flour (used alongside all-purpose flour) keeps the cookies pillowy soft while preserving structure.
• Dutch-process cocoa delivers a rich, bakery-style chocolate flavor.
• Each cookie is large — about 1/3 cup of dough or roughly 4 ounces (112 grams) — which helps create a thick, bakery-style shape.
• Chilling the dough for at least 1 hour (up to 48 hours) prevents spreading and improves texture.
• Baking at a higher temperature sets the exterior quickly, producing slightly crisp edges while keeping the center soft and fudgy.

The dough will be very thick and sticky; that’s expected. It may be a little challenging to mix in all the dry ingredients, but that produces the best texture.

These cookies are extra-large, soft in the middle, fudgy, and loaded with peanut butter chips. The balance of rich chocolate and salty peanut butter keeps them from being overly sweet, while the texture feels indulgent and bakery-worthy.

If you’d like more decadent, bakery-style cookies, try similar recipes such as chocolate chip, peanut butter chip, or espresso-chocolate chunk cookies.

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

By: Fiona Dowling

These super fudgy dark chocolate peanut butter cookies have a rich chocolate flavor, soft and chewy texture, and are filled with peanut butter chips. Inspired by Levain Bakery, these gigantic cookies are irresistible.

Prep: 15 mins

Cook: 12 mins

Chilling: 1 hr

Total: 2 hrs

Servings: 12 cookies

Equipment

• Cookie sheets

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour (188 grams)
• 1 cup cake flour (120 grams)
• 1 cup Dutch-process cocoa (90 grams)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter (226 grams), softened to room temperature
• 1 cup brown sugar (210 grams)
• 1 cup white sugar (200 grams)
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 cups peanut butter chips (about 300 grams)

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, cake flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
2. In a separate large bowl, beat the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until fluffy.
3. Beat in the eggs and vanilla extract.
4. Mix the dry ingredients into the butter mixture in about two additions. Stir a few times with a spatula, then use a mixer on low, gradually increasing to medium speed until combined. The dough will be very thick.
5. Stir in the peanut butter chips.
6. Cover the bowl and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or up to 48 hours.
7. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C) and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
8. Form dough into balls using about 1/4 to 1/3 cup per cookie, or weigh each at ~4 ounces (112 grams). If the dough is too firm, let it sit at room temperature for 10 minutes. Place cookies at least 2 inches apart on prepared sheets.
9. Bake one tray at a time on the middle rack for 12–14 minutes, until the tops look just set.
10. Remove from the oven and allow cookies to cool on the tray for at least 20 minutes. They will continue to set as they cool.

Notes

1. Cake Flour: If you don’t have cake flour, measure 1 cup all-purpose flour, remove 3 tablespoons, and replace them with 3 tablespoons cornstarch. Sift together a few times.
2. Cocoa: Natural cocoa works, but Dutch-process gives a richer flavor.
3. Smaller Cookies: For smaller cookies, make dough balls about 1.5 tablespoons and bake 8–10 minutes.
4. Freezing: Freeze dough balls in a bag and bake from frozen, adding 1–2 minutes to the bake time.
5. Storage: Store baked cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.
6. Nutrition: Nutrition values are based on one cookie if the batch yields 12 uniform cookies.

Nutrition

Calories: 385 kcal; Carbohydrates: 57 g; Protein: 5 g; Fat: 17 g; Saturated Fat: 11 g; Sodium: 187 mg; Fiber: 3 g; Sugar: 35 g.